


There Is a Light

by perfectdagger (sincerelyste)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Parents, Angst, Christmas AU, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Future Fic, I assure you, Kid Fic, M/M, New Years AU, Single Parents, Warning: there's a little bit of depressive feelings mentioned, and there's also some pining, but it's cute, but just a little bit I guess, idk i just like to add drama to everything lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 18:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5637343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincerelyste/pseuds/perfectdagger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis and his daughter have had a pretty bad year and things start to change when Harry tries to buy the same doll Louis intended to buy for his little girl for Christmas.</p><p>Two girls.<br/>Two fathers.<br/>Two families, meeting and becoming exactly what the other needed during the holidays.</p><p>Christmas/New Years AU in which Harry and Louis are single parents and they meet at an odd encounter at the toy shop and somehow, they end up together, bonded by their little ones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Is a Light

**Author's Note:**

> For reference, this is how I imagined [Louis' daughter (Diana)](https://78.media.tumblr.com/5f51ba76e8f4a145e94fa6b87e1c5081/tumblr_p16jh4Vd741vnwncjo1_540.png) (you can check more pictures of her on her mom's instagram: [@mintkarla](http://instagram.com/mintkarla) \- SHE IS THE CUTEST!!!!!!)  
> and this is how I imagined [Harry's (Olivia)](https://78.media.tumblr.com/f9fb27e000b029665fe4691d1c1a2452/tumblr_p16jh4Vd741vnwncjo2_500.jpg)
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! xx

“Daddy, daddy, c'mon!” The little girl kept pushing the tall man along the aisle in the toy shop.

It was actually a lot emptier than the man had imagined, considering it was Christmas's eve eve. On the other hand, most of the shelves were already empty, with only a few toys left.

“Calm down, sweetie,” he said, giggling, his hands wrapped around her small and thin wrist. “That doll ain't going anywhere.”

He picked her up in his arms. Her fluffy and curly hair brushing against his face, and her little arms pointing to a pink glitter box in the middle shelf.

“Are you sure this is the one?” He asked, kissing her cheek.

She clapped her tiny hands. “Yep!”

“Alright, let's go get it then.” He put her down on the ground again and took a couple of steps, reaching out his arm to pick up the box.

As he was about to take it from the shelf, something prevented the item from moving.

“Oi, mate, I got to this box first!” The tall one heard another man saying by his side. He didn't even notice there was another person at the aisle when he got there.

“I think we literally got to the box at the same time?” He looked confused as he turned his head to face the man. He was a little shorter than him, wearing a green jumper, black jeans and sneakers. His hair was a little messy with a fringe covering his forehead. There were also squintting blue eyes looking up at him.

“I was here before you arrived, sorry, mate,” the small one replied, pulling the box to him, making the tall one let go of it, a little perplexed.

“I don't suppose there's another box of this doll?” He questioned, running his eye through the shelves. That was literally the last box of that doll. Of course, lucky him.

“Unfortunately, it doesn't seem so.” The small man shrugged. The tall one pressed his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose. Olivia would be devastated if she didn't get that doll.

He was about to open his mouth to talk the man into giving it to him when the other one spoke.

“Listen, pal, I'm sorry, I see you have a little daughter and she must want this doll, as a lot of other girls do. Meself has a little one too and by your looks,” his blue eyes ran the tall one from head to toe. He was wearing a black coat, over a simple white shirt, with some big brown Chelsea boots. His hair was in a tight bun behind his head, some curls falling loose. “You seem to be the type that can afford any other doll in this store,” he sighed and looked over his shoulder.

The tall man followed his gaze to see his little one chatting with another little girl.

“I may be wrong, I don't even know you, curly, but I know that me and Diana have had a shitty year and that little girl deserves the world because her birthday is coming up in a week and I can't afford another present. Lord knows I couldn't even afford this one for Christmas,” the blue-eyed man looked back at the box in his hands and turned again to the tall man in front of him, “but I've saved every penny I could to at least give her this.”

“I'm...” The tall one was actually speechless. He looked past the man's shoulder to see his own daughter happily talking to whom he knew now it was Diana.

The man in front of him seemed so simple and sincere. His daughter seemed so delicate.

He knew he could get any other doll on that store and he actually knew Olivia wouldn't mind choosing another, even though she's been talking about this one for the past two weeks.

“She's been so eager about this doll, but I don't-”

“Look, curly,” the small on seemed a little irritated, “I don't wanna fight you over a doll, seriously, that would be pretty pathetic, even for me, but-”

“No, no, it's… fine,” he clarified. “I don't think she'll mind getting another doll. Your daughter will be very happy with this one.”

“Thanks a lot, mate.” The other man smiled briefly, turning his head to look at the two little girls behind them. “Diana, c'mon! Let's get going, chipmunk!”

As he called, the little girl came running. She looked a little bit older than Olivia, but not much as they seemed to have the same height. She had short light brown hair and some big blue eyes, just like her father's by what the tall man could notice.

He watched the man hold his daughter's hand and slowly walk away. He felt a little hand pulling his coat and he looked down to see his Olivia looking up at him.

“Where's the doll, daddy? Why they taking it?” She pointed at the man and his daughter.

“Oh sweetie, it was the last one and he wanted to give it to her for her birthday.” He shyly smiled. “You don't mind choosing another one, right? I'm sure your little secret Santa friend at the children's home will like any doll you give her,” he said, patting her small head as she nodded, smiling.

“We going there today? I wanna give Sally a pretty doll!” She asked already looking at the other boxes on the shelves, trying to find another doll she might like.

“No no, we're going to St. Peter's Home tomorrow! Just a little bit before Santa!” He picked her up in his arms to help her look at the boxes on the top shelves. “I'm sure you'll choose a pretty one for her.”

The other man stopped walking a few steps ahead as he listened to the conversation behind him. He swallowed dry as he felt his heart a little tight in his chest.

“Papa, you okay?” He felt his little girl pulling his hand and looking up at him.

“Yeah yeah, babe, let's go,” he said, starting to walk again, leading them to the cashier.

 

*

 

The tall man was walking on the sidewalk along with Olivia holding his big hand as she carried a purple package almost as big as herself.

“Liv, do you want daddy to hold the bag for you?” He looked down at his daughter, who had a wide smile on her face even though the chilly wind was cutting through their faces.

“No no. 'M hold it, daddy. Wanna give Sally it myself,” she replied, holding her father's hand tighter.

“Alright, sweetie,” he said grinning, making a big dimple appear on his left cheek. They walked a few more steps until they reached the front door of St. Peter's Home.

It was always a nice feeling to go to that place. The tall man felt like helping children who didn't have a home, or a family, was his duty and he was so grateful that in there, he was able to find one very special little girl to welcome into his life and call her his own daughter.

“Harry!” A slightly old lady opened the door after he rang the doorbell. She opened a big smile to see him and didn't hesitate to pull him into a tight hug. “How have you been, my darling?” She asked, letting go of him and putting both her hands on the side of his face, pressing his cheeks.

“Pretty good, Ellie,” Harry chuckled, scrunching up his nose.

“And how's this little petal?” She said after kissing Harry on the cheek and looking down at Olivia.

“'M good, auntie Ellie!” She hopped in excitement as Ellie bent down to kiss the top of her head.

“So good to see you both! Come in here, let's not freeze outside.” She swung the door open, giving them space to step inside.

Father and daughter took off their boots and coats and kindly handed them to Ellie to hang them up on the coat stand.

“So, I see you've brought a little gift, Liv. May I ask who is it for?” Ellie asked crouching down.

Olivia looked from Ellie to Harry, who only put his index finger in front of his lips making the little girl giggle. “'S a secret!” Olivia replied looking back to Ellie.

“Oh, alright! Then we must find out who will receive this beautiful purple package.” Ellie pinched her cheek and then stood up, leading them inside the house.

“Wrapped it myself for Sally,” she spontaneously said with a bright smile on her face, proud that Ellie had noticed her work and when she realized what she'd said, she quickly led her little hand to cover her mouth, looking up at Harry, who was trying to contain his own laughter.

Ellie simply brushed one hand over Olivia's curly hair. “Oh, the cat is out of the bag,” she chuckled, “don't worry, love. It'll be our little secret,” and winked down at Olivia, who took her tiny hand to hold Ellie's.

The three of them walked into a large room, filled with a couple dozen of children. The sound of laughter and conversation filled the room as Harry saw kids sat down on the floor playing, running around or simply sat on some chairs that were circling the room. 

“Olivia!” A blonde girl called from across the room, coming running to hug the curly one. Olivia almost dropped her package as she returned the hug, but Harry managed to catch it before it hit the floor. The blonde little one pulled Olivia by her hand, running back with her to where she was before with some other girls, all of them almost the same age.

“Alright kids,” Ellie called in a loud but soft tone and almost everyone stopped what they were doing to pay attention to her. “I think we can start playing now that everyone is here! Take a sit and your present from secret Santa, okay? Chop chop, let's get going!” She clapped her hands as the kids started going around the room getting their packages and choosing a place to sit. 

Harry walked up to Olivia and crouched behind the small chair she was already sat, handing her the purple package.

 “Can I give Sally my gift already?” She looked at her father, her eyes shining with excitement.

“I don't think that's how secret Santa works, love,” Harry laughed. “You have to wait until we find out who will give you a present and then you make the other kids guess that you got Sally,” he said kissing her on the cheek.

“Aaaaaah, right,” Olivia replied but Harry could tell her mind was already in another place, looking around at all the other kids, maybe trying to guess who had gotten her.

“Now that everybody has settled down, who wants to go-” Ellie started saying, already sat in a chair near the door, but was cut off by the sound of the doorbell and confusion rose on her face.

“Hm, okay, I don't think we were expecting anyone else but I'll check the door. Harry dear, could you watch the kids for a sec?” She gazed at Harry who simply nodded and smiled. He loved those kids to death and he knew all of them were angels, so there wasn't much to worry about.

Ellie took a few minutes at the front door and when she came back, two other accompanied her. Harry looked at whom was behind her and he was surprised with what he saw.

“Daddy, 's the girl from the store!” Olivia shouted and pointed as he saw the short light brown haired girl beside her father, holding a bag with a box inside. Harry stood up in a jolt. What were they doing there?

“Mmm-hmm,” Ellie cleared her throat. “It seems we have a couple of new guests with us. Everybody say hi to Diana,” she spoke as she stepped aside to let everybody see the father and daughter standing beside her.

“Hi Diana!” The kids shouted in unison and at that Olivia ran to the middle of the room and without saying any word but smiling, she took Diana by her hand and led her to the chair beside hers.

Harry's expression grew more confused as the minutes passed. He kept looking at the man standing beside Ellie, exchanging a few words with her, and when the lady walked back to her seat, he kept his gaze on that same short man he had just briefly met at the toy shop the day before and watched as he went to a corner of the room and stood there, leaning against the wall.

The game went on for quite a while until everybody got picked up and received a present from their secret Santa. Harry barely had time to pay attention to it as he kept occasionally glancing over to the man standing at the other side of the room. Today he was wearing a big black coat over a grey sweatshirt, apparently the same black jeans and same shoes. The other different thing was his hair, which was covered by a black snapback.

Harry only fully returned his attention to the game when a little boy was giving clues and everybody guessed correctly that he was talking about Olivia and then it was her turn to make everyone guess that she was talking about Sally, which didn't take long because she gave it away by the second hint. Harry laughed and clapped along with everybody else and looked over at the man on the other side of the room, who had a big smile on his face.

As the game was over, Harry saw Diana running to meet her dad and saw him crouching down to talk to her. He observed as he kept pointing with his hand for the little girl to go over to a group of girls where Olivia, Sally, the little blonde girl and others were together showing each other the gifts they had received.

As Diana finally left her father's side and shyly walked to the group of little girls, Harry decided to talk to the man. He still didn't understand what he was doing there with his daughter.

“Hm, hi?” Harry approached extended his hand in front of the other.

“Hey there, curly,” the man reached out his hand to Harry's, formally shaking it.

“It's Harry,” he answered smiling, shaking in return.

“Oh, sorry. Bad manners. Of course you have a name. I'm Louis," the man retrieved his hand and pointed to himself, smiling too.

“No, it's okay. I don't mind the nickname,” Harry let out a small laugh. “'S just we didn't introduce ourselves properly yesterday.”

“Yeah, yeah, right,” Louis said putting his hand inside the pocket of his coat as he absentmindedly was looking over Harry's shoulder with a small smile.

“Which brings me to ask you, if you don't mind, what are you exactly doing here today?” Harry looked around to where Louis had his attention. At that moment, he had his question answered.

He saw Louis' daughter handing the package she had brought to Sally and the other girl simply opened the widest smile, ripping it without a care, revealing a pink glitter box, with the doll that Harry and Louis were fighting over the day before. Harry saw his Olivia open her mouth and eyes wide too as she simply hugged Diana.

“I overheard you talking to your daughter as I was leaving yesterday,” Louis returned his attention to Harry, who looked back at the man in front of him, perplexed. “I didn't know you were buying the doll to bring to a children’s home. If you had only told me…”

“No, no, you shouldn't have to do this!” Harry was taken aback. “Olivia didn't mind choosing another doll and besides, it was for your daughter’s birthday. You saved money to buy it for her, you really shouldn't have to come all the way here to bring the-”

“No, curly, listen,” Louis cut him off. “There’s nothing more important to me than making kids happy. I know I’m trying my best to make my own child happy, but,” he looked down as he ruffled the back of his hair that wasn't under the snapback, “you gotta teach ‘em early that material things don’t always buy happiness, right? Maybe another kid out there will be happier with something to play when they have nothing else.”

Harry didn’t say anything. He was seriously in shock with Louis’ attitude. It was pure selflessness what he did, when just yesterday he was practically pouring his heart out as to why he wanted to make his daughter happy. The man seemed to have a very big heart.

“And was your daughter okay with it?” Harry asked. He just needed to confirm that Diana agreed to that, even though he could see that the little girl was actually happy to be there and was very happy to give the doll to Sally.

“Yeah yeah, of course, she understood. She’s been so down lately and yesterday when we met you and your daughter at the store and later when I explained her this, she just…” Louis averted his stare from Harry. “I’m sorry, I don’t wanna bother you with this.”

“Oh, no, you’re not…” Harry didn't actually know what to say. Maybe the poor guy just needed to get some things out of his chest. And Harry was actually a very good listener.

“This is the happiest I’ve seen Diana in the past six months,” Louis confessed as he breathed out heavily. “We lost her father during summer.” Harry could feel Louis looking over past his shoulder again to find his daughter playing behind them.

“I’m sorry about that,” Harry said apologetically although he was actually taken aback again, because it didn't even cross his mind the fact that it wasn’t just Diana and Louis. She actually could have a mother, but having another father… He was surprised, if he was being honest with himself.

“It was something very sudden, we weren’t expecting it, but, yeah,” Louis breathed heavily again. Harry could see his eyes trying to deceive any pain he had in him. “Anyway, it’s been rough for us these past few months and we decided not even to celebrate Christmas, but I was so tired of seeing her down, so young and so sad that I needed to do something for her, especially considering it’s her birthday and-”

“How old will she be, if you don’t mind me asking,” Harry interrupted Louis, looking over again to meet the group of girls playing happily.

“She’ll be 6.” A smile formed on the corner of his mouth.

“Oh, she’s just a little bit older than Olivia. She’ll be 5 next year,” Harry tried to change the topic of the conversation to something else.

“She looks older for her age, though. Or maybe my Diana took after her father on the short gene,” he laughed. Harry chuckled politely in response. “No, but seriously, she looks very smart for a 4 year-old. You must be really proud.” Louis looked directly at Harry, which for a moment made the tall one lose track of his thoughts, but he quickly came back as he blinked a few times.

“Oh, yeah she is a piece of work, that little thing,” he tugged a strand of hair behind his ear, looking over again to where Olivia was, noticing she was holding Diana in a tight hug. “I’m glad you and Diana decided to come. The kids here are very special and I’m glad to see she is happy with them.”

“Me too,” Louis answered as he waved at Diana, making a gesture for her to come to him. “Sally now must be the happiest girl on earth!”

“Yeah, she must be, two gifts on the same day...” Harry watched as Diana came closer to them and to his surprise, Olivia was walking behind her shoes, holding hands.

“Ready to go, chipmunk?” Louis asked Diana as she let go of Olivia’s hand to wrap her arms around her father’s legs shaking her head no. “C’mon love, you played so much with everyone here already,” he crouched down to face her.

“Can we come back another day to play?” She asked as Louis could almost hear her little voice cracking.

“Yeah yeah, of course,” he replied, sadly, looking up at Harry and shrugging at the tall one, who was picking up Olivia in his arms.

“Daddy?” The curly girl called Harry very low.

“Yes, Liv,” he looked at her small dark eyes, kissing her on the cheek.

“Can Diana go home with us?” She asked blatantly, whispering in Harry’s ear. Harry startled at the girl’s question.

“Oh sweetie, I’m afraid she has to go home with her father.” He answered kissing her cheek again.

“But she said they are alone today. I want her to be with us,” she already had some pleading eyes and Harry had to stop and think straight for a second.

In fact, Louis had mentioned they weren’t going to celebrate Christmas. Harry actually felt heart warmed about the man and his daughter, not in a pitiful way, but actually, he wanted to repay the good deed they had just done, so Olivia’s suggestion wasn’t bad at all.

“Louis?” Harry called the man carefully, as he was talking very calmly to his daughter.

“Yes?” He looked up at Harry before standing up again, with Diana still wrapped around his legs

“Hm, I was- We were thinking if you two wouldn't, hm, like to spend the evening with us?” Harry didn't know why but he was actually nervous to ask the man this.

“Oh,” Louis frowned his brows for a second, considering the question. “I- I don’t-,” he cleared his throat, which suddenly became dry. “Well, thanks for the offer,” he tried to recompose himself, “but you don’t have to, we’re not really…”

“Please, Papa!” Diana’s voice suddenly emerged and Louis looked down at her. Her big blue eyes were a little teary, but wide, along with a hopeful shy smile.

Louis’ heart practically melted instantly. He hated when she did that. But to be quite frank, it had been months since she had done something like that and he understood why. Now that she seemed genuinely happy after so long, it would be just cruel for him to deny her something and make her sad again.

“I…” Louis was hesitant, but finally let out a defeated sigh. “Ok, if it’s no problem to you, I mean, we don’t want to cause you any trouble or anything-”

“No, it won’t be!” Harry quickly replied. “It’ll be just the two of us too. It’ll be nice to have some company on Christmas Eve,” he smiled, feeling relieved. He didn’t know why exactly.

“I guess it’s settled then,” Louis said smiling from Harry with his Olivia in his arms to Diana who was now with the biggest smile on her face.

“7 pm at my house?” Harry put Olivia down, who quickly pulled Diana into a cozy hug. “I’ll give you the address and you can give me your phone number in case you get lost,” he said, taking his phone from his pocket.

“For me 's fine,” Louis replied, doing the same.

Not long after, Louis and Diana were leaving St. Peter's Home and Harry and Olivia were standing by the door watching them walk on the street as the snow started to fall very softly.

 

*

 

It was little past 7 pm when Harry heard the doorbell ring. He got up from the couch, with Olivia following his footsteps cheerfully. When he opened the door, he met a very smily Louis, dressed in a long greenish coat, with the hood covering his head from the snow that had started to fall harder. In one hand, he had a bag and in the other a little light brown haired girl, dressed in a navy blue coat covered in pink polka dots.

“Diana!” Olivia shouted already meeting the little girl with a hug.

“Come on in, it's freezing outside,” Harry greeted the two standing outside his door with a smile.

Louis returned the smile and stepped inside. Olivia had already pulled Diana to enter the house, leading the little girl to the middle of the living room.

“I still want to find out how they got so attached after knowing each other for so little,” Louis observed the two girls. 

“Me too,” Harry shook his head laughing, briefly looking at the girls too and then returning his attention to Louis. “What's on the bag? I told you there was no need to bring anything,” he said taking the bag out of Louis’ hands. 

“And what an awful guest would I be? That would be bloody impolite of meself to arrive here empty handed,” he replied already taking off his coat, revealing a grey Adidas jumper. 

“You wouldn't be a horrible guest because I told you not to bring anything,” Harry side eyed him as he opened the bag, revealing a tray covered with an aluminum foil. “What's this? Did you cook? Louis, you didn't have to, I have prepared us-” 

“Curly”, Louis cut him off as he placed one hand on Harry's shoulder, making the tall one look at him. “This is to thank you for being so kind to me and me daughter. You are the one who didn't even have to do this for us. I can't thank you enough.”

Harry looked from Louis' hand to his face, stopping his gaze at the other man's blue eyes. Again, there was the sincerity he had found in his voice the day before at the store. 

“Oh,” Harry breathed without actually knowing what to say. He could feel the gratitude in Louis’ eyes and it actually warmed his insides. “It's fine and I'm sorry, it's just that you really didn't have to worry...”

“Oh no, it wasn't any trouble for me, this is something I'm used to preparing. It's actually the only thing I know how to cook, besides heating up frozen food on the microwave,” Louis chuckled shyly, pulling his hand back from Harry's shoulder and running his finger through his fringe. “Which reminds me, this still has to go in the oven to heat a little. Is there a problem?” 

“Not at all. I think my pie is ready already, so we can put it there now. Let's go to the kitchen?” Harry replied, already taking the tray in his hands and motioning with his head for Louis to follow him.

It took about 30 minutes to heat up the dish Louis had brought and in the meanwhile, he and Harry shared a bottle of wine, chatting up a little, sharing their recipes while the girls had headed to Olivia's bedroom to play. At around 8 pm, they were all eating their meals at the dining table. Harry had prepared a turkey pie with vegetables and ham, along with Louis’ dish - chicken stuffed with mozzarella wrapped in parma ham with a side of homemade potato mash -  and some Brussels sprouts, as Harry had said that even though that wasn't a proper Christmas dinner (it was pre-Christmas dinner, he emphasized), it would be just wrong not to have them.

Fathers and daughters enjoyed the dinner and a little after were appreciating some gingerbread man biscuits Harry had baked with some eggnog for the men and hot cocoa for the girls, who were by the coffee table in the middle of the living room drawing while watching some Christmas movie that was on the telly.

“You're lying to me. No bloody way you baked these yourself,” Louis said as he put his fifth gingerbread man in his mouth. “This is good as hell!”

“I'm a baker, I've already told ya,” Harry shook his head and laughed as he was breaking his gingerbread man's legs and arms.

“The bakers I know don't bake this good, just saying,” Louis said almost moaning as he bit off the head of his biscuit, “also, I'm no expert in baking as I'm a failure in the kitchen, but you should win some kind of medal or something because, man, these taste fucking delicious, best gingerbread men I've eaten,” Louis gulped the rest of the biscuit in one bite and Harry giggled, amused by Louis' compliments.

“You're exaggerating,” he shyly replied, eating his gingerbread man's members one by one. “And also, you're not a failure in the kitchen, that chicken was really good!” 

“Nah, it's no big deal,” Louis shrugged, looking at Harry. “It doesn't take a lot of effort and time to make it, it's very simple. That's why I can cook it even though I haven't done it in a while…” Louis' voice suddenly became very low as he lowered his head to look at his own hands that were resting on top of the table.

“Why?” The word left Harry's mouth before he could stop it. He had an idea why and he didn't want to sound like a nosy person intruding into someone else's life, someone who he barely knew for 2 days. Maybe it was all the wine and the eggnog he had already drunk. But deep down, he knew he was curious about Louis and Diana’s story.

“I…” Louis started but then pondered what to tell. Maybe the wine and eggnog were also affecting him. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know if him opening up to an almost stranger about this, after 6 months, was the right thing.

He glanced over quickly to where Diana and Olivia were playing. That didn’t feel wrong. Seeing the two girls there, as if they’d known each other since ever didn’t feel strange at all and to be honest, he hadn’t felt so comfortable with someone so fast as he felt with Harry.

It was a weird feeling, but just spending some hours with him and knowing how big hearted that man was, it didn’t seem like they were strangers at all. “I haven’t been myself since we lost Charles,” he looked up at Harry to see an intrigued expression on his face. He took a deep breath before continuing. “Charles, my husband- ex-husband... I don’t…”

“Oh, don’t worry, if you don’t wanna talk about,” Harry started talking but Louis stopped him.

“No, it’s fine, it’s good to finally talk about it anyway. I haven’t done it since, you know... I don’t know, it was something just so sudden, I think I never really did process it at all.”

“What happened?” Harry asked carefully. He didn’t want Louis to talk about something that made him uncomfortable, but at the same time he was willing to listen to him if that’s what he needed.

“It was a car accident,” Louis intertwined both his hands together, looking at Harry. “We were getting ready to move to America. Charles was going to return to the headquarters of the company that sent him to London almost 10 years ago when we met. I had already left my job at the school after the end of the term, everything was almost ready for us to go over there during the summer and then…” Louis flickered his gaze back to his hands. It was painful, but it also felt good to just put it out there. He had bottled up this grief for too long now and it was about time to let it go. “He was in the ICU for 5 days, but he didn’t make it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Harry said sympathetically. He couldn’t imagine what it was like to lose someone like that. Instinctively, he led one hand to rest upon Louis’ hands and started rubbing his thumb over Louis’ skin. They both stared at the gesture for a moment, but Louis didn’t complain. It was comforting, to be honest.

“It was hard in the beginning,” Louis breathed heavy again, looking up at Harry again, building up courage to keep talking. “It’s better now, or it’s getting better, I guess, but it was very difficult to move on in the beginning. I was unemployed and had a daughter to take care of alone. At one time I really thought I wasn’t able to make it, I was about to lose it, ya know? Too much to think and to deal with, and I let it affect Diana and I think that broke me even more.” He looked down to see Harry’s hand still on top of his. Somehow, that didn’t feel weird at all if he was being honest to himself. “If I hadn’t had help from me mum, I think I would’ve let me and Di almost starve to death or worse, I don’t know and the more miserable I got, the sadder she got and I had to take her away from school… our lives were literally shit, honestly.”

Louis stopped talking, looking over to where Diana was. Harry could see the blue-eyed man getting teary. He kept rubbing his thumb as if to reassure him that it was alright to keep talking, or that maybe that they were fine now, or seemed to be better than before.

“That’s when I decided that I couldn’t live like that anymore,” Louis started talking again, with a small smile forming on the corner of his lips. The Diana standing right in front of his eyes did not look like the one from some months ago and at that he was relieved. “If my little girl wasn’t happy, it was my duty to make her happy again, so I started trying, and even though our lives still sucked, me not having a proper job, eating frozen food almost every day,” he shook his head laughing humorless, “I tried and kept trying. Sometimes it was hard, sometimes I felt like my heart was sinking, like, it was not right to see a 5 year old so sad, but, I kept trying, for me and mostly for her, and then we ended up at the store meeting you and Olivia yesterday.” He stared back at Harry.

He felt a weight fall off his shoulder and off his heart. He didn't know if it was okay to pour practically his life out at Harry like that, but something inside him was saying that he could trust the other man. Maybe it was the kind and comprehensive smile he had on his lips, or the thumb rubbing his hand all the while he was talking. It made him feel better.

“I’m so sorry. It doesn't seem fair that this had to happen to both of you,” Harry finally said, after holding eye contact with Louis for some time and then finally retrieving his hands from the his. “But you’re doing a good job now, Louis. I can’t say much, because I’ve only met you for one day,” he faintly chuckled, putting a strand of hair behind his ear and supporting his face with the other. “I can see Diana is happy and if you were able to talk about this, it means you’re getting better too. I mean, I know it’s not easy, but it will get easier by the time, you’ll see.” He was trying to find the right words to say, hoping to comfort Louis.

He didn't know why, but all he wanted was for that man and his daughter to be the happiest people in the world right now.

“I hope so,” Louis sighed, closing his eyes, thoughtfully.

“How long had Diana been with you when it happened?” Harry suddenly asked, looking around to the girls quickly.

“What?” Louis opened his eyes in confusion for a second, until he made sense of what Harry had asked. “Hm, no, we didn't- she’s not adopted, if that’s what you’re saying… she’s my daughter.” He said, frowning in a funny way.

Harry opened his mouth briefly, without reaction. He hadn't given that much thought. He did, however, notice that the little girl had a very similar look to Louis', her eyes resembling his blue ones, but maybe that was a coincidence. He hadn't considered that she would actually be his daughter.

“Yeah,” Louis laughed. “She’s my biological daughter. We did it through a surrogate mother. It was supposed to be Charlie’s, but we found out that he wasn't fertile, so, I ended up being the donor.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I should’ve known. She does look like you, she has beautiful blue eyes,” Harry said without thinking and when he realized, he could feel his cheeks blushing. He could blame that on the wine and the eggnog.

Louis let out a small chuckle, suddenly becoming a bit shy too.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, curly.” He winked at Harry, teasing a little, making the other feel more embarrassed.

Harry didn't know what to say, or else he would just say something he probably shouldn't, so he just shyly smiled, looking down at his unfinished gingerbread man.

“What about you and Olivia?” Louis asked, trying to avoid the awkward silence that would follow, taking the last sip of his eggnog.

“Oh, no, she’s not mine, unfortunately.” He looked up at Louis again, with a more discreet smile.

“I guess I could tell,” he replied, glancing one more time at the two little girls. Olivia had very curly dark hair, skin in an olive tone and eyes with some dark hazel irises, completely different from the tall man in front of him, who had a straightish long hair that formed some curls at the ends and skin in a fair tone with a slight tan, which highlighted his green eyes.

“Yeah,” Harry chuckled. “I adopted her almost 4 years ago, from St. Peter’s Home.”

“Oh, that’s why you were there?” Louis asked surprised.

“Exactly,” Harry nodded. “I've never hidden the fact that she is adopted, she’s known it since the beginning and I think it’s important for her to be in touch with the kids that have the same kind of backstory as hers. She loves it there, I mean, she loves the kids there, she always wants to make them happy. That’s why I think she bonded so fast with Diana. She can see when someone is sad and her nature is to try to cheer them up,” he crooked a smile.

Harry may not be Olivia’s biological father, but Louis knew that there was no way somebody would say that they weren't father and daughter after hearing Harry talk like that. That family was beyond kind and he was actually happy to have bumped into them.

“And what made you decide to adopt a child on your own?” Louis was intrigued.

“I didn't decide it,” Harry hesitated for a second, “on my own”, he continued. That was a story he had not talked about in a long time, but if Louis was capable of talking about the loss of his husband, Harry didn't have to worry about talking about it. “I had someone back then. We were together and we were thinking about adopting a child, well, I was thinking about it, at least,” he shrugged. It literally gave him shivers to think about how wrong he never realized he was. “I’ve always wanted kids, I’ve always put it on the table with anybody I had gotten a little bit more serious and with him I thought we were already past the getting serious stage, going to a steady relationship, anyway.” He tried not to lose track of what actually mattered. He pulled the sleeves of his brownish jumper, which was covered with some rectangle forms, covering his hands.

“I’ve always visited St. Peter’s Home, have always helped Ellie there,” he continued, “and when Olivia arrived there when she was barely months old, I fell in love with her immediately. I knew she was the one that I was destined to take care of,” he looked around to observe the girls again, smiling at the sight of Olivia happily drawing with Diana by her side. “And so we started talking more and more about adopting her and we actually could do it, because the bakery and the branches were doing well and we had the conditions to do it so, but the he chickened out,” Harry breathed heavily. “He simply bailed out, saying that he wasn’t ready, that it wasn’t in him to be a father at that moment, and he left me, weeks before we would sign the papers.”

“What a cunt!” Louis swore without realizing. He covered his mouth quickly, trying to see if the girls had heard it, but apparently, they were too entertained in their drawings and with the movie. “Sorry,” he apologized, laughing a bit. “But really, what an arsehole. How could he do this to you when he knew what you wanted?” He didn’t know who that person was to Harry, he didn’t even know his name, but he already hated him. How could someone just leave Harry like that? That seemed like the worst crime of all.

“Honestly?” Harry pondered his words. “I didn't care back then, and I care even less now. It’s not like it prevented me from moving on and continuing with the adoption process,” he ran a hand over his face, taking a deep breath. “In fact, it only motivated me, because I knew that my happiness wasn't with some man who was selfish enough to be with me for 3 years and yet had no regards to what we had planned for our lives all those years,” he looked at his hands, playing with the rings on his fingers. “It made me realize that all the happiness I needed was in a tiny human who was barely aware of her existence, but that was already my whole world.” A huge smile appeared on Harry’s face. His whole expression lit up and at that, Louis understood the bond Harry and Olivia had. Because it was the same he had with Diana.

“So you just decided that you would take care of an almost newborn baby by yourself?” Louis rested his hand on the side of his face.

“I know it sounds crazy and even I had doubts if they would let me adopt her, let alone that I would be able to handle it, but, I had the help of my mum and sister,” Harry admitted. “It wasn't easy, you know how it is to take care of a child yourself,” he smiled at Louis, “but I managed and here we are now…”

“That’s inspiring,” Louis confessed. He was really astonished by Harry’s determination, will, and passion about being a father. “You’re not only a good person, but what I had already guessed before, now I’m sure of it; you’re an amazing parent, curly.” He gave Harry a supportive smile.

“So are you.” Harry returned the compliment. It was true. Louis' strength to keep his daughter happy in the past months was the true definition of dedication and doing what you can to make the one you love happy. Harry was impressed by Louis’ selfless act at the children’s home earlier that day and now he understood where it came from. “Never think otherwise, Louis. You are an amazing father to your daughter. She’s very lucky to have you.”

Louis didn't know how to respond to that. It was overwhelming how sincere and caring those words sounded. He didn't know what he did to deserve Harry telling him that, but he was grateful for it at that moment.

He simply nodded, smiling in an attempt to say thanks to Harry, who was casually staring at Louis. They kept staring at each other until Diana’s voice made them break the gaze and pay attention to the girl coming to meet them by the table.

“Papa!” She called, getting closer to them with a paper in her hands. Olivia appeared behind her in a second, carrying a paper herself too. “We made you a birthday drawing!” She said, putting her paper on the table and Olivia followed her movement.

Harry’s eyes became wide open, staring from the girls, to the drawings and finally to Louis. “Birthday?” He asked confused.

“Er, yes,” Louis replied, nonchalantly, observing Diana’s drawing in front of him.

“’S my Papa’s birthday today!” Diana said excited, clapping her hands and jumping on Louis’ lap.

“You can’t be serious. It’s your birthday? Today?” Harry was now with a surprised look on his face, brows rising.

“Last time I checked, I was born on December 24th, so, I guess it is indeed me birthday today,” Louis shrugged, still looking at the drawing Diana had made, kissing her cheek. “Thanks, chipmunk!”

“Look what I did, daddy!” Harry heard Olivia call and shifted his attention to her, who was poking his arm. He looked down at the paper in front of him to see the drawing of what looked like four people in front of a house.

“What’s it, sweetie?” He asked her, intrigued by what she had drawn.

“’S us” She replied smiling. “Diana, Diana’s dad, me and you daddy! Us all together!” She innocently said and Harry’s heartbeat stopped for a second. He closed his eyes quickly and simply smiled, patting her hair.

“It’s beautiful, Liv. Go show Louis. It’s for him, innit?" He encouraged her to get closer to Louis. She nodded and walked around the table to meet him.

“’Appy Birthday”, she said as she approached Louis, handing him her drawing.

Louis greeted her with a smile, picking up her paper and looking at it, his face lighting up. “This is beautiful, Olivia. Thanks, love,” he pinched her cheek softly and looked up at Harry, with a fond smile.

“I can’t believe you didn't say it was your birthday,” Harry was shocked. “I could’ve baked you a cake, we could’ve made a proper party and-”

“No, please,” Louis cut him off with a serious gaze. “You don’t need to do anything else for me, Harry. What you’ve done today by welcoming me and Diana here is more than we deserve. My birthday is nothing that important. I never make a big deal of it anyway and this year I wasn't in the mood for it, considering everything, so yeah, it’s no big deal, actually.”

“I can’t accept that,” Harry shook his head, “any birthday should be celebrated,” he said as he stood up. Louis followed Harry with his eyes, seeing the tall man walk into the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” Louis turned around on his chair, with Diana still on his lap.

“I’m gonna bake you a cake.” Harry answered already looking into his cupboard. Olivia’s eyes widened as she hopped excitedly.

“What?!” Louis stood up, putting Diana on the ground. Olivia took the little girl by her hand, leading her to the kitchen too. Louis followed them. “It’s past 9 in the evening; you don’t need to bake a cake. Harry, seriously. Please, I’m asking you...”

“Daddy’s cakes are delicious!” Olivia exclaimed, sitting on a chair by the round table in the kitchen as Harry was already gathering some ingredients. Diana stood by her side, with Louis behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

“I bet they are, sweetpie! But, Harry, please, you can’t bake now! It’s already late, you don’t have-”

“Louis,” Harry turned around, interrupting Louis, facing him with a serious expression. “I will bake you a birthday cake. It will be a small cake, it won’t take long. Maybe it will be just one small cupcake, I don’t know yet, but I will and you better not interrupt me.” Harry turned around harshly, already mixing some eggs and flour.

Louis couldn’t argue back. Harry was at his house and if he wanted to bake a cake at two in the morning, he could. Louis just couldn’t believe how determined the other man was to do something for his birthday. It was not like they were longtime friends and Harry owned him anything, but yet, there he was, showing that he cared enough for Louis to treat him like that.

It didn’t take much time indeed for Harry to bake a small cake. In less than an hour it was ready and Harry made them sing happy birthday before eating it. The girls were very excited for the little celebration and happily enjoyed the cake, as well as did Louis, who was still amazed by what Harry had done to him that night.

It was almost 11 pm when Louis decided it was past the time to go home. He was about to get up from the couch where he was sat beside Harry, the two girls were sitting on the floor watching another cartoon, when Harry said that he would take them by car. He wouldn’t let father and daughter go back home walking at that late at night, with snowing still falling.

“You’re crazy if you think you can go out this late. I’ll take you both.” Harry said, getting up too.

“Our house is not that far, I can easily walk back with Diana.” Louis tried to argue.

“It’s freaking snowing, it’s dark, it’s not safe, Louis. Let me drive you there. It’s no problem and I’ll feel better knowing you both arrived home safely,” Harry interjected, already putting a coat over his brown jumper and getting the keys to his car.

Louis sighed defeated. Amongst all the things he had learned about Harry that night, he also learned that when he was determined to do something, no one could convince him otherwise.

“Ok, fine,” Louis put on his own coat and got Diana’s from the stand. “Diana, let’s go, chipmunk!” He called the little girl, holding her small coat. She stood up and ran to her father.

“Olivia, sweetie, let’s go take Diana and her father home?” Harry called and Olivia promptly stood up too.

“Can they stay more?” She asked, looking up at him with pleading eyes.

“Now they have to go, love. It’s late and it’s past your bed time too, okay?”

“Oh, alright,” she pouted and looked over to Diana who was also with some sad eyes talking to her father. “I really like her, daddy,” she said and Harry felt his heart tighten up in his chest.

“I know, sweetie.” He kissed the top of her head.

The ride to Louis’ house took some 10 minutes as Harry was carefully driving on London’s snowy streets. They were quiet for most of the small ride, and it took  only some 2 minutes for the girls to fall asleep on the backseat.

“Here you are, safe and sound,” Harry announced as he parked the car in front of Louis’ building.

“Thanks, curly. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate it. Everything you did tonight, actually,” Louis said, staring at Harry.

“There’s no need to thank me, Louis. It was my pleasure to have you and Diana over. It was a very lovely night.” Harry shyly smiled.

“It was indeed,” Louis looked over to see Diana with her eyes peacefully closed and with Olivia resting her sleepy head on her shoulder. “It seems wrong to wake 'em up now, though. Just look at 'em.”

“Yes, they look like little angels.” Harry glanced over to the girls too.

Louis looked back to Harry. “This is crazy, innit? I mean, I don’t know what happened between 'em, but, it’s like they’ve known each other since they were born and Diana is so happy. And I’m not even considering only the past few months. I can’t recall her being this happy with any other friend.”

“Maybe it’s a Christmas miracle,” Harry replied, staring at Louis, his green eyes meeting the blue ones.

“Maybe,” Louis chuckled, trying to look away from Harry’s intense stare. “Well, happy Christmas, curly. Thank you again, for everything, I mean it. I feel like I’m being repetitive but I can’t thank you enough for what you and your daughter did for my Diana and for me too. And if we don’t see each other again, happy holidays, happy life, I guess,” he was hesitant, but he suddenly leaned in towards Harry, opening his arms to hug him.

It was not normal for him to hug someone whom he barely knew, but again, somehow Harry had made him feel like they were no strangers that night and in the same way Diana and Olivia seemed to get along so well, he couldn’t deny he felt the same with Harry.

“Happy Christmas, Louis,” Harry said, hugging him back tightly and Louis could feel how deep those words sounded and he felt his insides getting warm with Harry’s touch. It was a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time.

They hung on to the hug for a while, longer than any of them had anticipated. It didn’t feel awkward though.

Eventually, Louis let go of Harry, even though he didn’t want to, which he found weird enough. He didn’t let himself wonder much about that and quickly turned his body to the backseat, reaching out his arm to pat Diana’s hair and wake her up.

“Hey, chipmunk, we’re home. Let’s go,” he called the girl, caressing her cheek softly. She opened her eyes slowly and looked with her big blue eyes at her father. Louis helped her take off her seatbelt and at the same time, carefully laying Olivia down on the seat. The dark and curly haired girl continued to sleep and Harry fondly smiled at that.

“Thank you again, Harry. Goodnight!” Louis said in the most sincere way he could say it, before opening his passenger door and leaving the car.

Harry didn’t respond, only nodded in return. Even though Louis had called him by his name before (and he was already getting used to the other calling him curly - he really didn’t mind it at all), he felt something different at the way he had said it now. The way Harry’s name left Louis’ mouth made his heart fall to his stomach.

Harry watched as Louis opened the back door from the outside, getting Diana in his arms and walking to the entrance of the building.

“Goodnight, Louis.” Harry said to himself, as he started the car again.

 

*

 

“Wake up, Papa! ‘S Christmas, wake up!” A jumping Diana on Louis’ bed woke him up. He opened his eyes as she kept jumping over his body which was cozily covered with the duvet.

“Yeah, babe, yes, but calm down!” He said as he sat on the bed and held Diana in his arms, pulling her into a tight hug. “’Appy Christmas, lil chipmunk!” He kissed her cheeks several times, making her giggle.

And there it was his Christmas gift. He didn’t need anything else. Seeing his little one as happy as ever was all he had wished for.

“Santa came, Papa?” She asked looking at him with those big blue eyes.

Louis heart almost broke at the question. It was true that he had already explained  it to her, but it was also true that it was Christmas and kids wouldn’t forget about Father Christmas visiting them so easily.

“Love,” Louis started carefully, making her sit on his lap. He brushed one hand over her hair, stopping his hand on her cheek to caress her. “Remember when Papa told you that Santa would be so happy to see you give your gift to another girl?” Louis observed as Diana nodded agreeably, “and remember when you were so happy to see Sally happy because you gave her the doll?” She nodded again. “That’s your gift from Santa,” he said, booping her nose, “being happy is the best gift ever, right?” He kissed her cheek and she giggled some more.

“Then Santa gave me another gift, Papa,” Diana said, standing up on Louis' thighs.

“Easy, chipmunk,” Louis warned, faintly laughing as he felt the pressure of her little feet on top of him. “Yeah? What gift was that?” He asked holding her legs.

“Olivia!” She exclaimed, jumping from Louis to the bed again. “She made me really happy, Papa! Santa gave me a friend!” She kept hopping in excitement and with a big smile on her face.

Louis froze at that. If he thought that the Santa question had almost broken him, now he was certain this had shredded his heart into pieces.

He still couldn’t understand what was that had drown Diana and Olivia so close together. It was not normal, two kids weren’t supposed to get so attached so easily over the course of a day. That didn’t make sense to Louis. Maybe it was a miracle, as Harry had said the previous night, but still. And the worst part was how happy just by being with Olivia Diana seemed, how her presence simply transformed Diana from a mopping kid into a vivid one again. She had a contagious happiness, a light that would warm up everyone around he. Just like Louis could feel with Harry. He felt his stomach flutter at the thought. He didn’t want to think about that, not now that he wasn’t even sure he would see the man and his daughter again. He only hoped Diana would continue to be happy without depending on the other little girl.

“Yes, love, she’s a very nice friend,” Louis voiced after a few moments with his own thoughts.

“Can we see her again today?” Diana stopped jumping, sitting by Louis’ side. Again, he was taken by surprise with his daughter’s question. He breathed in deeply.

“I don’t think we can, love. ’S Christmas, they must be with their family. We can’t visit 'em all the time,” he replied, trying not to sound so harsh.

“But…” She started saying, but her voice cracked as she pouted and Louis could see her big blue eyes fill with water and as she blinked, thick tears started running down her red cheeks.

“What is it, babe? What’s wrong?” He asked, cleaning her tears with his thumb.

“I really want to see Olivia,” she hid her face on Louis' arm, getting his bare forearm wet.

“Love, I…” He didn’t know what to say. He was lost. He completely was. What could he do now to make her stopping crying, to make her happy again?

He scrubbed both his hands over his face, trying to think straight. It would be insane to bother Harry on Christmas day. He couldn’t do that. But also, he couldn’t let his little girl sad on Christmas day either. This was all a mess but he could try at least, couldn’t he?

“Alright, look,” he looked down at Diana, with a hand massaging his forehead. “I’ll see what I can do, love. Maybe they aren’t even at their house, babe, we don’t know, but Papa will try, okay? You have to promise me one thing. though,” he paused as he saw her looking up at him with hope in her eyes. “Don’t be sad. If you’re sad, Papa will be sad and that’s not what Santa would want, right? Remember, being happy is his gift to us.”

She nodded, sniffing and running her hand to clean her nose and dry the tears from her face. “Okay,” she replied, barely audible.

“Alright then, let’s get up, chipmunk,” Louis said patting her little thigh. “Go take a shower and then we’ll have breakfast and Papa will see if we can go over to Olivia’s.”

She nodded again and quickly jumped out of bed, heading to the bathroom.

Louis let out a heavy sigh. Now he had to build up the courage to call Harry.

It was weird to think that less than 12 hours ago he wasn’t even considering seeing him again so soon, or at all and now he was actually nervous that it might happen again. He didn’t know why and he didn’t want to think about the reason. Since last night, since after saying goodbye to Harry and Olivia, he tried as much as he could to stop thinking about them and tried to suppress whatever it was that he was feeling, something that he hadn’t felt in a while. Because maybe it wasn’t right, maybe it wasn’t appropriate to start having those feelings so soon; or maybe because he was still trying to figure out this sudden situation that somehow linked their families together. Or maybe because he was terrified of the fact that he was starting to feel genuinely happy after 6 months.

He took his phone from the nightstand beside him. It was 10 o’clock in the morning. He hoped it wasn’t too early to call Harry.

He waited as the phone rang once, twice and he thought about giving up by the third tone but then he heard the click of the phone being picked up.

“Hello?” The voice on the other side of the line answered.

“Harry? Hm, hi, it’s- it’s Louis,” he tried to hide the nervousness in his voice.

“Oh, hi, Louis!” Harry’s voice was surprisingly happy. “Well, this is funny,” he chuckled, “I was just thinking about you right now,” he confessed and Louis could feel his voice in a more casual tone.

“Really?” Louis felt his throat getting dry.

“Yeah. I was talking about you and Diana with Olivia, actually she was talking about you…”

“Right, this is actually weird because I was talking about you with Diana as well,” he laughed nervously, “this is why I called. I hope I’m not bothering you.”

“No, not at all. I was just watching cartoons with Liv…” If Louis could see Harry, he would say that the man had a smile on his face. “... and she was telling me how happy she was with Diana here last night and how she wanted to play with her again.”

“This is just getting weirder, because Diana literally woke up saying the same thing. I’m starting to think these girls have some kind of supernatural connection…”

He heard Harry laughing loudly. “Okay, this is really awkward.”

“Yeah,” Louis breathed heavily, trying to think about how to say what he was about to. “So, hm, listen, I hope this doesn’t sound weird or weirder than it already is, but I was wondering if, only if it’s okay for you and if you don’t have anything already planned for today, if the girls could meet? Diana actually started to cry when I said that you’d probably be spending the day with your family and I know this is embarrassing and weird as fuck, but I just don’t wanna see her sad on Christmas day after seeing her so happy with Olivia...”

“Of course not!” Harry’s voice had an excitement Louis wasn’t expecting. “That would be lovely! To be quite frank, I was considering calling you to suggest the same. Weird, right?” He chuckled. “But no, no problem at all, we would love to have you here again.”

“Cool!” Louis tried to contain his own excitement. “I guess we could meet after Christmas dinner, I don’t want to bother you and your family.”

“You won’t. It will be just me and Olivia,” Harry paused for a few seconds and when he started to talk again, his voice had an enigmatic tone, “but hm, yeah, I guess in the afternoon would be perfect.”

“Great!” Louis was now smiling to himself. “Thank you again, curly. I mean, it’s very nice of you and your daughter to be so welcoming to us.”

“It’s nothing, Louis. We truly enjoy your company,” Louis could feel Harry’s sincerity.

“The feeling is mutual, curly,” Louis admitted and he hoped he didn’t sound too straightforward. “I guess we’ll see you both later then.”

“Of course. See you later, Louis!” And again, if Louis could see Harry, he would say he had a big grin on his face.

Louis didn’t say anything else as he heard the click of the end of the call.

He felt relief growing inside his chest. He didn’t know if he was happy for Diana or for himself, but either way, he was happy now and also anxious and excited at the same time.

At that moment, Diana came back to the bedroom, freshly dressed and with her hair still a little wet. Louis got up to meet her by the edge of the bed and picked her up, sitting her there.

“Chipmunk, I think Santa is being very generous to you this Christmas,” he said, crouching down in one knee and getting the hairbrush from her hand and started to brush her short hair.

“Why, Papa?” She asked looking right inside Louis' eyes.

“We’re going to see Olivia later,” he fondly smiled at her.

By hearing that, she opened her mouth in surprise and jumped on Louis’ neck, almost making him fall on his back. He had to balance his body as he tried to hold her in his arms.

“Thanks Papa! Thanks Santa!” She shouted in Louis’ ear and all he could do was smile and hold her tighter in his arms.

“Let’s have breakfast, watch some cartoons, we’ll eat Nan’s turkey and then we’ll head to her house, okay?” He caressed her hair.

She nodded with her face hidden on his neck.

“I love you, Papa,” she said after a few moments, giving him a kiss on his cheek.

“Love you too, chipmunk,” he smiled again and his heart filled with happiness after hearing those words leaving her mouth after so long.

 

*

 

A little after 2 pm, Louis and Diana were walking to Harry’s house on London's freezing streets, which were quite empty considering that most people were at their homes, all cozy and enjoying their own Christmas’ dinner.

Louis stopped in front of the same door from the day before, ringing the doorbell. He could see that the light inside of the house was on through the window, but with the sound of the bell, it quickly went off. Louis frowned at that.

He waited just a few seconds until he heard someone coming to the door. He was expecting Harry to open it fully, but then he only saw Harry sticking his head outside.

“Hi!” The long haired man said, with a mischievous grin on his face.

“Well, hello,” Louis replied laughing, “is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything is fine!” He continued to smile as he looked down at Diana. “Hi, petal!”

“Hi!” She giggled.

“So…?” Louis called Harry’s attention back at him. “Are we going to stand here outside or what?”

“No, no, sorry,” he laughed again and Louis didn't know if he found that funny or annoying actually. What the hell was going on? “Hm, yeah, but before you come in, I have to ask you something,” Harry continued.

“What?” Louis frowned.

“You'll have to close your eyes”

“What?! Why?!” Louis was more confused now.

“Just do as I say, you have to close your eyes. You too, Diana,” Harry said smiling at her and she simply covered her eyes with her little hands.

Louis looked down, perplexed.

“What the hell are you up to, curly? I’m not gonna…”

“C’mon Papa, close your eyes,” Diana said, turning her head up to Louis, still with her hands covering her eyes.

“C’mooon, Louis,” Harry teased him and Louis sighed.

“Ok, fine,” he gave in, as he squinted his eyes.

“No peeking!” He heard Harry say as he opened the door. “Alright, take my hand,” Harry said and before Louis could say anything, he felt the other man grabbing his wrist. “Diana, take your father’s hand too. Watch the floor. I mean, you don’t need to literally watch the floor, just be careful,” he chuckled and Louis laughed at that too.

They stepped inside the house and the door closed behind them. Harry led them to take a few more steps and then stopped.

“Alright, don’t open your eyes yet, oayk?” Harry’s voice echoed as Louis felt him distancing himself a little. “Liv, come here.”

Louis' eyes continued closed but he could notice that the lights were back on. He was actually getting nervous with all that mystery. Seriously, what was Harry doing?

“Right, you can open your eyes on the count of three. Liv, help daddy count, okay?”

“Why are you doing this, Harry, I don’t unders-” Louis tried to say, almost opening one eye, but Harry stopped him.

“Shhhh, don’t ruin it, oka? Just wait," and at that, Louis squinted his eyes harder, shaking his head. "Alright, Liv, with daddy. One, two… Three!” They shouted together, and Louis finally opened his eyes again.

What he saw in front of him was nothing he could've imagined.

The dining table was set with a big cake in the middle, some sweets surrounding it and some birthday hats all over it. From the ceiling, there were some balloons hanging and a banner was attached to the wall behind the table, with “Happy Birthday, Louis” handwritten on it and some drawings too, which he could guess were done by Olivia.

It seemed like Harry had prepared him a birthday party.

“WHAT IS THIS?!” He asked in surprise mixed with amusement.

“’S for you, papa! Your birthday!” Diana was clapping her hands by his side as Olivia excitedly joined her.

“I told ya, everyone’s birthday should be celebrated and yours shouldn’t be different. Happy birthday, Louis.” Harry said, standing in front of Louis.

Harry was wearing a light blue shirt, which Louis could notice was covered with some white stars, along with some black jeans. His hair was completely loose, with his brown locks falling over his shoulder.

“I…” Louis tried to speak, trying to find his words. He didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t expecting that at all. “I feel like I have said more ‘thank yous’ in the course of the past couple of days than in my entire life, but, I don’t have anything else to say other than thank you, again.”

“You don’t have to, really,” Harry shyly said.

“Of course I have, bloody hell, otherwise you’ll think I’m an ungrateful bastard for everything you’ve done to me,” Louis laughed nervously. Harry was too kind for this world. He was not real.

“No, I would never think of you like that, Louis,” Harry confessed. “I’m doing this because I want to, because a birthday is a special occasion and everybody should celebrate it, including, and especially, you.”

“No, but this is too much, Harry, you didn’t have to! You already baked me a cake yesterday when I didn’t even ask you. And now you go and bake another one? Throw me a freaking party? This is just too…” Louis was completely baffled.

“You should learn that, when it comes to Harry Styles, nothing is too much.” Harry winked at him.

“Well, _Harry Styles,_ ” Louis said his full name teasingly, “you should know that Louis Tomlinson is not used to this kind of extravaganza.”

“You should get used to it, then,” Harry hinted, looking straight into Louis’ eyes. Louis didn’t know what to say, again. Harry shifted his attention to Olivia, who was already showing Diana the sweets on the table. “Liv, sweetie, can you get daddy that box we’ve wrapped earlier?”

“Yep,” she replied as she promptly walked into the kitchen.

Harry asked Louis to take a seat by the couch and as he sat down, Diana came to join him. Harry stood leaning against the armrest of the couch and only watched as Olivia came back, a few moments later, walking towards them with a small box in her hands. It was wrapped in a white paper with a few details in red and it had a golden bow on top of it. She handed it to Harry, who patted the top of her head, and she sat on the same couch as Louis, beside Diana.

“Considering today is Christmas and almost everything is closed, I guess this was one of the best gifts we could've found,” Harry started to say, handing the box to Louis.

“You can’t be serious, you didn’t have to buy me a-”

“You need to stop telling me what I should or shouldn’t have done, Louis.” Harry interrupted him, a little annoyed by Louis’ reluctance. “I already told ya. I’m doing this because I want, because I want to see you happy,” Harry said, admitting more than he meant to.

At that, Louis did not know what to respond, once again. He gulped and took the little box in his hands with no hesitation.

“As I was saying, we were very lucky to find a little shop open that was selling some souvenirs and actually, even though this is something very simple, I think this was a one-of-a-kind thing to give to you, so I hope you like it.” Harry said as he watched Louis tear the wrapping paper and open the box, revealing a small snow globe.

Louis took it in his hands and observed it, shaking it to make the fake snowflakes dance around two snowmen. He noticed, though, the two snowmen were actually different from each other. One was bigger than the other was, and it had a blue scarf and the smaller had a pink scarf.

“Is this…?” Louis asked, curiously, carefully examining the object in his hand.

“When I laid my eyes on this snow globe and saw the two snowmen, I literally pictured you and Diana in them. So yeah, I like to think that they are you and Diana.” Harry smiled as he saw Louis looking up at him, blue eyes literally shining.

“Harry…” Louis started, looking down again at the snow globe. He took a deep breath and gave it to Diana, who was already mesmerized by it. She took it in her hands and showed to Olivia.

He stood up, taking a couple of steps until he was a few centimeters away from Harry. “I’m seriously out of words. I can’t even… I don’t know, this is just crazy, ya know? I mean, all of this,” Louis gestured to the decorations around Harry’s living and dining room. “And you and Olivia… I don’t know what I did to deserve you both coming into our lives, I don’t know how this happened and I don’t believe in this bullshit, but maybe you were right yesterday when you said this was a Christmas miracle, because nothing like this has ever happened to me or to Diana before, nobody has ever done anything like this and,” Louis felt his heart grow and grow inside of him and all he did was suddenly hug Harry, who was taken by surprise, taking a few seconds to return the gesture. But when he did, he tightly held Louis, breathing in his cologne.

“Sometimes things just happen, ya know. We can’t explain them, they just happen, for a reason or another.”

Louis let go of the hug, looking right into Harry’s green eyes, holding him by his shoulder. “I think so. I just want to let you know that you and Olivia have made Diana and I very happy these past couple of days and I can’t thank you or repay you enough or in any way.”

“I’ll tell you once again: you don’t have to,” Harry stood up, making Louis take a step back as so to give him space again. “But, actually, there’s one thing you can do,” he said as he walked towards the dining table. “You can taste the cake I baked for you.”

“Well, that I can do with pleasure,” Louis joked, following Harry.

“But not before we sing happy birthday! C’mon girls!” Harry called them and they came running to meet them by the table.

“We already sang it yesterday, when it was actually my birthday, by the way. We don’t have to.”

“You clearly don’t know me, _Louis Tomlinson._ ” Harry emphasized Louis’ name. “It is called a birthday cake for a reason and by not singing happy birthday before eating it, we would be denying it the right to fulfill its life’s purpose.” He said, already getting a lighter to light up the few candles on top of the cake.

“I can’t even argue against it. You certainly are something else, _Styles,_ ” Louis shook his head as he laughed and watched as all the candles flickered and the girls started clapping their hands, along with Harry, chanting happy birthday to him.

 

*

 

It was something natural what happened in the next following 4 days. Louis, Harry, Diana and Olivia kept seeing each other every day. And it was not like they actually had planned it. It was just something casual, when, maybe in the morning or in the middle of the afternoon, one father or the other would call each other asking if the girls could enjoy some time together, be it by going to the park or the mall, or even staying at each other’s home, watching movies or playing board games.

Neither Harry nor Louis objected to that. They realized that the girls really enjoyed each other's companies and somehow had become inseparables. They still found that hard to believe, but they’ve accepted it. Fate, God, Santa Claus, or whatever had brought those girls together, really did a good job.

They also couldn’t deny the fact that they felt good with each other too. Harry and Louis had become closer and spending time with each other, talking, sharing experiences, telling funny stories about the girls had become a routine to them. It was as if they had been friends for a long time now. The girls had brought them together as well and they were grateful for that.

There were times, though, when Louis wished they hadn’t become that close. It was scary to him how he felt about Harry. Although he didn’t allow himself to think much about that. He wanted to believe that whatever he was feeling, it was simply a deep feeling of gratitude for what Harry had done for him and his daughter. But it was hard to believe that when he kept noticing how Harry’s face lightened up whenever he talked about Olivia, how his green eyes would sparkle whenever he looked at the two girls playing, how a deep dimple would form on his left cheek whenever he smiled or laughed at something Louis would say.

Louis didn’t want to think of Harry like that. He hadn’t allowed himself to think of anyone else like that after Charles and he didn’t know when was the right time to start feeling like that again. However, he couldn’t pretend he didn’t notice that Harry had sparked something inside him. He just didn’t know what exactly this thing between them was, and as much as he knew Harry had showed him great sympathy, was always kind and gentle and kept saying that he just loved being around Louis and Diana, how seeing them happy would always brighten up his day, he couldn’t say what was going through Harry’s mind.

But the thing was, Louis had sparked something inside Harry too. If Harry had to admit it to himself, he was almost sure he missed Louis as much as Olivia said she missed Diana whenever they weren’t together. And it was not only his company that he missed. He missed Louis as a person, missed how even though Louis still seemed broken, he still found in him something to fight for every day, and Harry wanted to help him with that, he wanted to be what inspired Louis to keep on going, he wanted to be the light that brought Louis back to life. He missed how caring Louis was with Diana and also with Olivia, always playing with them and making the little girls laugh. He missed how Louis would never measure his words and would say what was on top of his mind, making Harry laugh at the most ridiculous things. He missed how he just wanted to make Louis and also Diana happy all the time. And it scared him too. It would keep him up at night thinking that he shouldn’t feel like this for someone he had met less than a week before. It haunted him how intense it was.

But for now, none of them had let those feelings show and just spending some hours together, watching the girls play together, it was enough for them.

It was enough for them when they were taking a walk around a small park that was near both their houses on the Sunday before New Year’s and they watched as the girls were playing with the snow that had accumulated from the previous days.

“Why didn’t you spend Christmas with your family?” Harry asked as they walked.

“I wanted to give them a break, especially me mum,” Louis replied, with his hands in both pockets of his black coat. “She has been taking care of us since the accident and she has me younger siblings to take care of too, I couldn’t steal her for meself this holiday. She deserved some time with her own family too. And also,” he breathed in the cold breeze, “I thought it would be good for me and Diana to be spend some time alone, ya know, I thought it could make her happy again if it was just the two of us,” he then laughed faintly, “but I guess she found a little friend who could help her with that,” he smiled.

“That we could never have imagined,” Harry said smiling too, trying to keep his beanie on his head.

“Yeah,” Louis chuckled, observing the girls in front of them. “But, hm what about you, why did you decide to stay in snowy and cold London?”

“Ah, my mum and Gemma decided to take some girls’ holidays themselves and actually I had to take care of some business from the bakery, so I thought it was best to stay here as well.”

“And by staying here, we somehow bumped into each other,” Louis was mostly talking to himself. Harry quickly glanced at him, smiling a bit. “But speaking of staying in London alone with the girls,” Louis turned his head to face Harry, “as Diana’s birthday is on New Year’s Eve, I thought that maybe, you and Olivia could spend it with us?” He asked, a little bit nervous, if he let himself admit. “I wasn’t even considering doing anything before, but, ya know, I think it’ll be nice for Diana to have Olivia around on her birthday.”

“That sounds perfect! I’m sure the girls will love spending Diana’s birthday together,” Harry replied without hesitation. If only Louis knew that asking them to spend New Year’s together had been in the back of Harry’s mind for the past few days. He only didn’t know how to bring it up. But now that Louis had suggested it himself, he was relieved.

“Yeah, it will be great,” Louis smiled fondly at Harry.

“I can bake her a cake!” Harry said suddenly, as if the idea had just popped into his head.

“Oi, don’t you start, Styles,” Louis shook his head laughing.

“Oh c’mon, she’ll love it! She loved the cake I baked for your birthday. I know you loved it too!” Harry winked at Louis.

“Okay, you got me. I can’t lie, that cake was pretty damn good. Why haven’t you been nominated the best baker in the U.K yet?” Louis bumped Harry with one shoulder.

Harry felt his cheeks blushing and he laughed loudly. “Stop exaggerating, Louis.”

“I’m not. I’m being completely honest here. You bake like heaven, curly. One of these days I’ll stop by one of your bakeries to see if what they do there is as good as what you bake yourself…”

“Be my guest, the branches are open from 8 am to 5 pm on weekdays,” Harry joked and bumped back into Louis with his shoulder, making the small one laugh.

Whenever Louis would laugh, Harry would feel his stomach swirl, looking at his eyes squinting as to form little wrinkles by the sides. Harry didn’t know why he felt so endeared by that.

“Daddy!” He heard Olivia calling, drifting him away from his thoughts. He focused on the little girl coming running towards him, with Diana by her side.

“Hey, sweetie.” He bent down a little to kiss the top of her head.

“We wanna make snow angels!” She said, looking eagerly at him.

“What?” He laughed. “It’s too cold do lie on the snow, Liv and you’ll get all dirty…”

“Oh, c’mon curly, what’s wrong with letting the kids have some fun?” Louis asked playfully as Diana was already pulling him by his hand.

“Let’s go too, daddy. We need four angels!” Olivia grabbed his hand, trying to pull him, but Harry was a little hesitant, standing still where he was.

Diana suddenly also grabbed his hand, trying to help Olivia, now standing between Louis and Harry, pulling them both. “C’mon, Papa, c’mon, Dad,” she said, looking from Louis to Harry.

At that, Louis instantly froze and it wasn’t because of the cold. He stopped walking, letting his hand slip from Diana’s. 

Harry kept standing still where he was, but his expression was completely blank.

“Babe, what did you…” Louis started asking, after blinking a few times trying to process what his daughter had said.

“C’mooooooon, Papa,” she simply said as she held his hand, pulling him once again, along with Harry. Louis reluctantly started walking again, turning his face to look at Harry, who was still in shock.

“Let’s go, daddy,” Olivia called him and started pulling Harry too, who finally had given up, starting to move again.

The girls stopped when they reached an open field fully covered with snow, where, during summer, it would supposedly be completely covered by grass. They started running around it, already falling on the snow and starting to make some snow angels.

“Harry, I’m sorry about Diana,” Louis said, his gaze paralyzed looking at the girls, not really sure how to look at Harry again.

“No, you don’t have to apologize. Kids do that all the time,” Harry scratched his head over the beanie.

“No, but this is not normal for her, especially because…” Louis hesitated and breathed heavily, letting out a cold sigh, “that’s how she used to call Charles,” he confessed, now looking at Harry, his blue eyes barely meeting the green ones.

“Oh,” Harry was speechless. He wasn't expecting that. He couldn’t deny it felt a little weird hearing the little girl call him dad, but sometimes kids tended to mistake roles or names and it actually wasn't a problem for him, but now knowing what Louis just told him he felt his heart stopping beating for a second. “Maybe,” he tried to think of some explanation, “it's because she’s listened to Olivia calling me daddy all the time, maybe she made a connection, I don’t know, but it’s nothing to worry about, Louis. It happens.”

“Hm, yeah. I guess so.” Louis didn’t know if that was the case. He hasn’t heard Diana say the “d” word in the past six months and he knew that this was a trigger word for her. Why would she say that now? Why would she say it to Harry? Louis didn’t want to overthink this, but he couldn’t make sense of it either.

“Daddy, come here!” Olivia shouted from the snowy ground.

“Don’t worry, Louis, it was just something that slipped from her mouth. It’s fine,” Harry said, patting him on the shoulder, trying to comfort him, and stepping inside the field, walking up to the girls. He only hoped that he was right about that.

Louis breathed heavily once again, trying to leave his thoughts behind before following Harry’s steps in the snow.

Both girls stood up just as their fathers got closer and once again, pulled them by the hand, actually making them fall on the ground. They started throwing some handful of snow at the two of them, causing them to laugh, which made them forget about the awkward situation from some minutes before.

“Make some angels, papa,” Diana said, as she lay down one more time, already making movements with her little arms and legs as to make a snow angel. Olivia followed her lead.

“Your hair is covered in snow, curly,” Louis said, reaching out his hand to take off some of the snow that was on Harry’s hair, touching his soft curls that were falling from his beanie.

“Same for you,” Harry laughed as his own hand was reaching out to Louis’ fringe.

“And your coat,” Louis said, carefully moving his hand from Harry’s hair to his big and soft beige coat, patting it.

“We’re a mess, actually,” Harry looked down to see Louis' hand moving up and down his shoulder. Harry’s hand hadn’t left Louis’ hair, though.

“Yeah,” Louis suddenly looked up at Harry, meeting his green eyes. For a moment, it felt like it was just the two of them, lost into each other’s stare, with Harry’s hand suddenly moving down to meet Louis’ face and Louis holding Harry’s arm tightly.

“Daddy, where’s your angel?” The moment was broken with Olivia climbing behind Harry’s back, pulling him to lay down.

“Oh sweetie!” He said as his back met the cold snow. “Daddy’s gonna make a beautiful angel for you, just watch”, he said, quickly glancing back at Louis and winking. One second later, he was already moving his arms and legs on the snow.

Louis shook his head, trying to, one more time that day, leave his thoughts behind, as he also lay down beside Diana, taking her little hand in his.

“Let’s make an even more beautiful angel than theirs, love”, he said, letting his competitive side show, making Diana giggle.

  

*

 

It was Tuesday, New Year’s eve and also Diana’s birthday. As they had previously planned, Harry and Olivia went to Louis’ to spend the day with them.

And as promised, Harry had baked her a delicious cake that the girls took no time to almost devour it. Also, as not promised, but somewhat expected, Harry and Olivia had brought another birthday gift for her. Olivia had picked on the day before at the toy shop - the one in which a week ago they had met - a beautiful doll for Diana.

Louis didn’t even argue with Harry about it, because honestly, there was no point anymore. The tall man would continue to do as he pleased, to do whatever he wanted to make that family happy, no matter how much Louis insisted that he didn’t have to do so.

They had celebrated Diana’s birthday during the afternoon, eating cake and sweets and playing games together and when the evening was approaching, the girls decided to watch some movies that were on the telly. They all lay down on the living room floor; Louis had brought some duvets, blankets and pillows so they could be comfortable there. The girls were lying between Harry and Louis, already in their pajamas, as they had decided that it would be better if Harry and Olivia spent the night over there, considering that going back home after midnight wouldn't be a very wise thing to do.

After two Disney movies, they had moved on to one that the girls thought would be fun to watch because the tittle was “New Year’s Eve”.

“This is literally a cheap American rip-off from Love Actually,” Louis pointed out after watching almost the whole movie.

“We have the lovely Christmas movie. As they are nothing but original, of course they would pull a New Year’s one similar to that. You can’t say they haven't tried though,” Harry said, not taking his eyes from the TV.

“Don’t tell you’re really enjoying this. I don’t even think this is appropriate for the girls to be watching,” Louis looked over to Harry, who had a small smile on the corner of his mouth.

“Don’t tell me you’re not curious to know if the girl will kiss that boy at midnight. They clearly like each other, just look,” Harry turned his head to face Louis.

“The worst of the clichés. Actually, the worst part is Bon Jovi giving up playing on freaking Time Square to go after that woman. Honestly, who would do that?”

“But he’s giving that Lea Michelle girl… what’s her name?”

“’S Elise, daddy,” Olivia answered looking up at Harry.

“Thanks sweetie,” Harry said as he kissed her forehead. “So, he’s giving Elise a chance to sing, just pay attention to it, Lou,” Harry said, the nickname slipping out of his mouth. He pretended it didn’t happen and looked again to the TV.

Louis noticed it, though and he couldn’t help but let a shy smile appear on his lips. “Okay, fine.”

As they all were paying attention to the movie again, it started to show the countdown to midnight and as the seconds passed by and the clock on Time Square hit 1, the camera showed some people kissing each other.

“Ew, why they kissing?” Olivia asked and Harry noticed the little girl covering her eyes with her hands.

“Ewwwwww,” Diana did the same and Louis and Harry only laughed.

“That’s what people do. Well, at least it is what couples or people who like each other and are spending the night together do at midnight,” Harry explained, taking Olivia’s tiny hand from her face.

“But why?” Diana asked, only opening a little space between her fingers to continue watching the movie.

“I don’t know, love. It’s just a tradition. Maybe to show that they want to spend the next year with that person,” Louis kissed her cheek.

“I wanna kiss you at midnight, daddy,” Olivia said, naïvely and Harry tickled her tummy.

“As much as I’d love to cover you with kisses at midnight, you young lady will be already peacefully sleeping,” he cuddled her, kissing the top of her head.

“But daddy…” She tried to let go of his embrace, pouting.

“You know the rules, sweetie,” he kissed her cheek and looked back at the TV. “Let’s get back to the film. I think we’ve missed the girl and the boy part.”

“He kissed another girl. I told ya, cliché,” Louis said promptly.

“There will be a plot twist, just wait and see,” Harry quickly looked back at Louis.

The movie had long finished and while the girls were watching the next one, they fell asleep. Louis and Harry decided to let them sleep there and got up, heading to the balcony of Louis’ flat, where they stayed chatting, drinking up some wine, waiting until midnight to see the fireworks.

Luckily, it wasn’t snowing, but it was cold enough that Louis had to put his denim jacket over his dark blue hoodie and Harry had his big beige coat on over a plain gray hoodie.

“You know what I was thinking?” Harry suddenly asked, leaning against the railing of the balcony. Louis was by his side, but leaning his back against it.

“What?”

“It’s funny… that your birthday and Diana’s are a week apart.”

“Oh, yeah,” Louis chuckled, “and the interesting part is that we didn’t even plan it. I don’t think we actually had thought about it when we finally found the surrogate mother. It just happened,” he turned around, resting his forearms on the railing.

“And both before two big holidays,” Harry drank he last sip of wine, placing the glass on the flat part of the railing.

“You wanna know something?” Louis asked and Harry only looked at him in response, encouraging him to speak. “When I was about her age, I used to think that all the Christmas lights were for my birthday. Nobody ever told me that. I knew it was for Santa, actually, but I think I just liked to imagine that they were for me too,” he confessed to Harry, with a nostalgic grin, “and I don’t know why, but Diana thinks the same about the fireworks. Neither me nor Charles ever told her that, but when the fireworks would start, she would always scream “Happy Birthday”. We never told her that it wasn’t for her, though, so I think she keeps believing it.”

“You can’t deny she is her father’s daughter then,” Harry joked, bumping Louis with his shoulder.

“Yeah, she’s got some good traits after her father,” he agreed, laughing. “God, I can’t believe she’s six already.”

“They grow up so fast, don’t they? Sometimes it doesn’t seem so, but when you realize…”

“And she’s grown so much in the past year. I mean, she’s changed too, because of what happened,” Louis lowered his head, intertwining his hands.

“But she’s better now. I mean, I can’t imagine seeing her sad ever again. She has changed back, she looks so happy now, Louis,” Harry suddenly put his hand on top of Louis’.

Louis looked down at that and as if it was normal for him (which wasn’t), he intertwined his fingers with Harry’s. He could feel when Harry stilled his hand, but just for a brief moment, as he let himself hold Louis’ tightly. Louis didn’t think straight before doing that, but he was glad that he had done it.

“That’s because of you and your Olivia,” he said, facing Harry. Even though it was dark and the balcony was only illuminated with one small light, he could see Harry’s green eyes shining.

“That’s not tr-,” Harry started to say, but Louis cut him off.

“It is, Harry,” he spoke, in a more serious tone. “Sometimes I still catch myself thinking how and why this happened, but all I can make sense of is that it just happened and it was because you and Olivia appeared in our lives, just a week ago. It terrifies me a little of what this is, because not only is Diana happy again, but I am too,” he confessed and he didn’t know if it was right to say all those things. Maybe the wine was already having some effect on him. Or maybe not, maybe he just really wanted Harry to know how he felt.

“Louis,” Harry turned his body a little, not letting his hand let go of Louis'. “I don’t know what to say. It’s just so… overwhelming to see you and Diana happy. If there are two people in the world right now that deserve to be happy, those people are you both and if me and Olivia helped you with that... I feel honored. If nothing else, I feel complete, because I think that at the moment I got to know you, all I wanted was for _you_ to be genuinely happy.” Harry squeezed Louis’ hand as he looked right inside Louis' blue eyes. He knew when Harry said “you” he was talking about Diana and him, but the way he emphasized it, he understood what Harry actually meant.

Louis couldn’t explain what was happening. Never, in his entire life, had he felt like that. He wanted to feel bad for that actually, because he felt that somehow, he was taking the past years with Charles and Diana for granted - a time when he believed that he had his life sorted out, when he believed that he was fully happy and when he thought that he didn’t need anything else in his life. But right now, it was something different. It was a different kind of happiness. It was something that took him away from the darkness and brought him back to life. Harry and Olivia were some kind of light that showed him how to be happy again.

He had fallen in love with that little family and if he let himself be honest, he was falling for Harry. He didn’t know how that happened or why, but he was and his heart was burning and he could feel his hands sweating by Harry’s touch.

They held their gaze on each other for quite a while, without neither of them speaking, until they started to hear some fireworks at a distance and then some closer to them, getting louder, making the sky light up.

“I guess it’s midnight.” Harry noted, still holding Louis’ hand.

“Happy New Year, Harry.” Louis said, moving his body closer to Harry’s.

“Happy New Year, Louis.” Harry replied, leading his other hand to touch a strand of hair from Louis' fringe that was falling over his eyes.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!” They suddenly heard two little voices shouting and in a jolt, they stepped away from each other, looking at the two little girls coming into the balcony.

“What are you two doing here?” Harry asked, a little disorientated by what was going on.

Olivia and Diana were in their pajamas, wearing the birthday hats that Louis had bought for Diana. They had some whistles in their mouths and some colorful ribbons in their hands.

“Weren’t you supposed to be sleeping?” Louis asked, frowning and looking around as the girls started encircling them, throwing the ribbons around them and sort of getting them trapped in them.

Olivia and Diana kept running in circles around them, laughing, until Louis and Harry had to stay pretty close to each other, again.

“Girls, what are you doing?” Harry asked startled, but laughing.

They then stopped when the bodies of the two men had barely no distance between them. Louis and Harry didn’t know what to do but to stare from each other to the girls, who started jumping and clapping their hands.

“Kiss! Kiss!” They chanted and both Harry and Louis widely opened their eyes.

“Olivia!”

“Diana!”

They said at the same time and then looked at each other, not able to contain their own laughter,

“’S a midnight kiss, daddy!” Olivia said and Harry opened his mouth in shock.

He looked back at Louis, who was simply staring intensively at him with those blue eyes of his.

“These girls, they are out of their-” He couldn’t finish what he was saying, as Louis suddenly put his hand on the side of Harry’s face, playing with some of his curls, making him freeze.

As much as he tried to contain himself, Harry couldn’t deny that this was what he had been thinking for the past few days. That  was actually what he was thinking about doing just minutes before the girls entered the balcony.

He wanted Louis to know that all he wanted was to never let him be sad again. All he wanted was to have Louis in his arms and be what Louis needed to be happy. All he wanted was for Louis to know that he was in love with him.

“Curly,” Louis started to say, holding Harry by the collar of his coat.

“We don’t have to do anything, Louis, unless you want to,” Harry said, biting his bottom lip and looking down at Louis’.

“Now I’m the one telling you to stop telling me what I should or should not do, Styles.” Louis warned, paraphrasing Harry from Christmas' day. He let out a small chuckle before gently pulling Harry’s head to meet his and locking their lips together.

At the touch, they heard the girls shouting and clapping their hands. They didn’t let that interrupt them, though. One of Harry’s hand ran to meet Louis’ arm and the other went to the back of his neck, pulling him closer to allow them to deepen the kiss.

And suddenly, they fit together.

Suddenly Louis felt a light entering his life.

Suddenly Harry’s life was complete.

They broke the kiss briefly to look at each other, both eyes and lips smiling. Together, they looked down at the girls, who were still jumping in excitement, smiling proudly of their little scheme.

“Mmm-hmm,” Harry tried catching their attention. “It’s too late and too cold for you two to stay here outside, young ladies.”

They only giggled, as they held their hands.

“Go inside, you’ll get a cold if you stay here,” Louis said, trying to sound strict, but actually winking at them.

“Are you gonna kiss again?” Diana suddenly asked, giggling and covering her mouth with her free hand. Louis only threw his head back, laughing a little as Harry shook his head, laughing too.

“Chipmunk, that’s none of your business,” he teased her, winking again and at that, she pulled Olivia by her hand, going inside again.

“I’m pretty sure they pretended they were asleep and plotted all this while we were here,” Harry said as he watched them getting underneath the blankets on the living room floor.

“I’m a hundred percet sure of that, but honestly, I don’t mind that at all." Louis looked back at Harry, not waiting for him to say anything back as he pulled Harry in for a kiss again.

* * *

 

_One year later…_

 

“Wake up, daddy! Wake up!” Harry slowly opened his eyes as a little voice kept shouting in his ears. He could also feel the bed moving as he noticed three little bodies jumping on it.

“Wake up, Papa!” He recognized another little voice.

“What’s all this fuzz about?” He heard the one lying beside him say, laughing and yawning at the same time, as he turned his body to lay on his back, facing the little girl.

“Christmas!” The third little voice said and Harry turned his body too, opening his arms to welcome a little boy with dark straight hair in his arms.

“S’ Christmas, daddy,” Harry saw Olivia climbing up over him, reaching out her arms to hug the two of them. “Diana wants to open her present, but I said we had to wake you and Papa first,” she said, her curly hair brushing against Harry’s face.

“Well, we’re up now!” The one beside Harry said and he turned his face to look at blue-eyed man lying beside him with a little light brown haired girl hugging him. Her hair now almost reaching her shoulder.

“Santa came this year, Papa!” She exclaimed as she distanced herself from her father a little. “He brought Daxton’s first Christmas's gift!” Her big blue eyes were shining.

“He sure did, chipmunk,” Louis said as he grinned at the sight of Harry with the two other kids in his arms. “Are you excited to see your present, Dax?” He pinched the little boy’s arm as he squinted his already small round eyes.

“Ya, Dadda,” the little boy tried to reply.

“Let’s go open those presents, then,” Harry kissed the boy’s chubby cheeks. Olivia left the bed and reached her arms out and Harry handed her Daxton as she carefully carried him outside the room.

“I’m very happy, Papa,” Diana said, hugging Louis again.

“I know, babe,” Louis smiled through the hug, caressing her hair.

“I’m happy to have two dads again on Christmas,” she looked at Harry, reaching out her hand to him, pulling him into the hug too.

The three of them didn’t say anything else for a few moments, as they tightly embraced themselves. Diana then simply let go of the hug and stepped out of the bed, running to meet Olivia and Daxton in the living room.

“Happy Christmas, Lou,” Harry suddenly said, leading his hand to gently hold Louis’ face, touching their lips together.

“Happy Christmas, Curly.” Louis closed his eyes as he accepted the kiss and embraced Harry in a warm hug.

**Author's Note:**

> I was hoping to have this finished before the New Year, but, well, as you can see it didn't happen.  
> I hope this is not too late for a christmas/new years au. We're still in the holiday season spirit, right? ;)
> 
> As I didn't want to spoil the epilogue in the first note, here's how I imagined [Daxton](https://78.media.tumblr.com/d893f3d6937118e8f8fc28371f8df23c/tumblr_p16jh4Vd741vnwncjo3_r1_500.jpg) :)
> 
> Thanks for Star, Lils and also Lari for reading it beforehand!
> 
> Comments are always welcome!  
> xx
> 
> [tumblr post](http://perfectdagger.tumblr.com/post/144224842283/there-is-a-light-louis-and-his-daughter-have-had)
> 
> Follow @[perfectdagger](http://www.perfectdagger.tumblr.com)


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